Authentic Orange

Submitted by Emily Burkhart

They say college is where you find yourself. Where you become your authentic you and establish your own personality, character, and spirit regardless of the external pressures and demands of the social and material world.  Everyone here at Beaver Nation is in search of who they are. As a community at Oregon State University, we are one, but as individuals we all have different ideas, thoughts, and motivations that make us who we are and authentic in our own way.

Figuring out who we are is an ever going struggle and we may not find our authentic selves until later on in life. We are constantly asking ourselves the same question almost every day, and that is who am I, and how do I want people to see me for me? With no one truly knowing the meaning of life we are to create our own and this is where our authentic selves are beginning to show. This is where the existential theme: Humanism plays a large role in becoming oneself and creating our own values. (Lecture 5/7/15) Humanism is where we are in the purists of identity and freedom in our thinking and where our values start to emerge when it comes to social, political, and economic pressures from today’s material world arise.

We must be wary in finding our authentic selves because there are so many obstacles that can lead us away from who we want to and are meant to become. As we are all Beaver Nation we all find ourselves becoming part of Nietzsche: “the herd” instinct. (Lecture 5/5/15) Where people will form groups of friends based off of similar interest and disinterest. We go to class, do our homework, and fall into a social life that we see to fit our needs. It’s human nature to want to “belong” As freshman we all worry we will not make friends, so we change some of our beliefs and qualities of ourselves to “fit in with the crowd” and later down the road we become comfortable with our new roles and become lazy in finding out who we really are. These are the external pressures of the world that influences us away from one’s authentic self and a lack of authenticity is considered in existentialism to be bad faith.

Nietzsche, “the herd” is in close relation with Kierkegaard’s, “The crowd”. Kierkegaard goes into discussing, “even if every individual possessed the truth in private, yet if they came together into a crowd, untruth would at once be let in.” (Kierkegaard, The Crowd is Untruth) Being in college this relates to students very well. We tend to have our own opinions and thoughts, and we stand by them, but as soon as we are in a group setting we want to change our mind and go with others thoughts on subjects to fit into “the crowd”. When someone is to open up about their own opinion and it can get shot down and hate from others because their ideas don’t go along side of “the crowds” and in today’s society is a big obstacle for the young adult to overcome.

How are we are to distinguish between our reasoning and our freedom is what it means to be human and where the role of ethics comes into play. (Lecture 5/21/15) Sartre discusses is to choose self, choosing for all humans, or are we only responsible for our own actions that shape the “image” of humanity. (Lecture 11, 5/5/15). It is the responsibility of people having to own up to who they are as an individual rather as who they are not is what makes them different. Each one of us at Beaver Nation reflect as individuals how others see the college as well as how we has a whole community reflect the college.

As college students here at Beaver Nation our transition into adulthood can be difficult, but we all find our way and have the paths set out before us as we choose them. There is no set definition to being “authentically orange” because each one, not only the students, but factually as well here at Oregon State make up what it means to be authentically orange. As long as we put in the effort to be authentic with ourselves and others we will reach our goals. I being one person out of thousands still need to work on myself but I, know I will become my own authentic beaver. I am Beaver Nation. We are Beaver Nation!